Dragon Dodgers (Wounds in the Sky Prequels Book 1) (10 page)

The mountain had become dark, lit only by the
half-moon
hanging in the sky.
Forming a semi-circle, the Dragon Dodgers closed in on the lair’s
entrance. Targon paced along the line of his Runners and stopped in
front of Enrig, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“
You know what I’m going
to say, don’t you?”

The boy looked down, then back
up.

“
I can help, you know? I’m
small and fast, and…”

“
You have a broken arm.” Targon cut him off. “Besides, the
only reason you’re here is because Balcazar brought us straight
here. The plan was to leave you in Sandahar, always was.” He
sighed. “Let’s face it, someone can get hurt in there trying to
protect you. Besides, every moment we waste here, arguing, is
another moment she is trapped in there.” Targon felt a huge lump on
his throat.

If she’s not dead
yet…

“
Alright.” Enrig said. “I
understand.”

“
You do?” Targon was expecting a lot more of a
fight.

“
Yes. Just save
her.”

Targon smiled.

“
Right. Find some cover,
then. You never know what’s out there.”

Enrig
nodded, then dashed away. Targon took a deep breath and rechecked
his Glowstone dagger.

This better
work…

“
Are the torches ready?”
He asked.

Thamet and Serak
reached around their back and showed him one torch each;
the smell of fuel stung his nostrils. He nodded his approval and
turned around. The Dragon lair stood before them; its entrance was
like a wall of darkness where the wind danced, creating eerie
sounds that chilled their bones.

How many souls have lost their
lives in that place?

“
What about you?” Targon
asked Balcazar. “Sure you want to come with us? This is not your
fight.”

“
On the contrary,
Captain.” He smiled. “This has been my fight for much longer than
it has been yours.”

Targon nodded.

“
Alright, let’s
go.”

He saw
several of his Runners wipe sweat from their faces; a couple of
them were praying in silence. At his command, they all stepped
forward.

Targon went in first, testing the ground before
him. Soon, he couldn’t see a thing.
“Thamet,” He whispered. “Torch.”

He heard him
strike a flint with his regular knife and sparks lit the tunnel
momentarily, until the torch caught fire. At first, it looked like
any other cave. Uneven walls, stalagmites rising from the ground
and stalactites dripping from the ceiling. Until Thamet lowered his
torch, lighting the ground – There were bones of every shape and
size scattered across the tunnel. Decades, maybe centuries worth of
death, piling on the ground.

Targon
drew his
Glowstone dagger and felt its weight. It was a poor excuse of a
weapon. Badly balanced and fragile, but it would have to
do.

Treading as lightly as possible, they crossed the tunnel,
making sure even their breathing was silent. The sound of the
wind
, howling from the
entrance, quickly faded away and was replaced by a deep, drumming
roar that came and went like waves crashing against the
shore.

It’s a snore.
Targon
thought.
The Dragon is
sleeping.

If it was, then maybe they did have a
chance of pulling this off.

The tunnel kept going
for a little longer, until, all of a sudden, it gave way to
a massive hollow.

Targon’s arm shot out, blocking his men. He
signaled them to back away and
peered into the opening.

There it
was, lying in the middle of the cave, with its palace sized chest,
rising and falling with long breaths. From the back of its head,
down through its spine and tail, it had a ridge of triangular bone
plates, some of which as large as a door. Its folded wings wrapped
around the base of its drawn out neck like a blanket. And above its
forelegs, rested a vast head where horns twisted and nostrils
flared with each snore.

“
I’
m going to look for
Anweh.” Targon whispered. “I’ll try to get her out before we
attack.”

Thamet, still holding the Torch behind
him, nodded in agreement.

“
Stay here.” Targon
added.

He stepped
out from their cover and involuntarily kicked a small rock. It
rattled across the ground, echoing through the cave as loud as a
thunderstorm. Or at least so it seemed. Targon froze. His heart
pumping so hard he thought it was about to shoot out from his
chest.

But the Dragon gave no sign of hearing it. It was still
snoring as steadily as before. Tha
met appeared behind him, handing Targon a torch. He took it
and nodded back.

Now able to
see where he was going, the Captain hurried across the cave,
swinging his head left and right, searching every corner of the
bone covered ground.

He circled an entire half of t
he cave, but there was no sign of her.

Did that idiot follow the wrong Dragon?

He was on
the other side of the cave, now, behind the Dragon, right beside
its tail. And then, he saw her. The tail curled protectively around
Anweh’s body. She was lying on one side, her arms lifelessly spread
out as if she was a doll casually dropped by a child. He gasped.
Was she alive?

He hurled himself over the tail, probably far more
carelessly than he should have
, and kneeled beside her. He held her gently by the
shoulder and rolled her onto her back. Her skin was cold and
pale.

“
Anweh…” He
whispered.

Her chest moved up, ever so slightly,
and Targon felt air coming out through her nose. A smile grew on
his face. She was alive. If only barely.

Targon felt
a pungent smell of iron. There was blood trickling down from the
corner of her mouth, but the smell came from her blackened clothes.
He lifted her shirt and discovered a horrible gash across her
belly.

He
cringed with the
sight. It was bad, he had to get her out. Thamet could certainly
stop the bleeding and stitch her up. And maybe Balcazar knew of
some healing potion that could help, but she didn’t have much
time.

Targon
placed the torch down and slid his hands under her, but, when he
was about to lift her up, she gave a small whimper. In a panic,
Targon covered her mouth, muffling the sound. Her eyes opened, wide
with fear and wet with pain. She recognized him and her face
creased in a silent cry; tears rolled out of her eyes. Targon
pleaded her to shush without a sound, when –

He saw it out of the corner of his eye. A small whisk from
the tip of the Dragon’s tail. It was like a punch to his
gut
. Was it waking up? He had
to hurry. Trying to be as gentle as he could, Targon lifted her,
but it was still too much for her. A sharp scream of pain escaped
Anweh and then, everything fell apart. The Dragon thundered, the
tail swirled and its body rose. The whole cave seemed to move.
Targon tried to run, hoping to reach the exit before the creature
could see them, but its tail whipped back down and slammed them
against the wall.

He was almost knocked out.
Cringing from the pain, he tried to get back on his feet,
quickly, before the Dragon squashed them both. The Dragon, however,
was too busy to notice them. Screams filled the cave, challenging
the beast. His men were attacking.

Taking
advantage of the distraction, Targon moved to the fallen body of
Anweh next to him. She was out cold. He tried shaking her,
screaming at her, but nothing worked. He put an ear to her chest,
searching for a beat, and heard one, then another. It was faint,
weak, but there nonetheless.

The Dragon Dodgers were
forming a semi-circle in front of the Dragon. Those holding
a lance tried to keep the monster at some distance, while the
archers fired a shower of Glowstone-tipped arrows onto the
monster.

There w
ere no
questions that the crystals worked. Targon had never seen something
go through a Dragon’s scaled hide, but all those arrows were
digging themselves deep into the creature, sending it reeling
backwards, roaring in pain.

There was no
way he could get Anweh past the Dragon, at least not safely. He
tucked her against the wall, making sure she was still breathing
and then kissed her.

“
I’ll be right back.” He
told her.

Then, he
drew out his Glowstone dagger and charged against the Dragon. He
stabbed its thigh, hoping to get the monster’s attention away from
his men, giving them a chance to strike with the lances, but the
Dragon just casually kicked him away.

The kick
sent him
flying backwards, and he crashed against the wall. It took him a
while to tell up from down and he had trouble breathing. He reached
around the back of his head and saw blood on his hand. When he
finally tried to get back on his feet, a sharp pain shot up from
his foot and his body crumbled to the floor. He looked up, to where
the fight was, but saw only a blur. He tried dragging himself
forward and the image became sharper. He saw Nyssa attempting to
stab the Dragon’s neck with her lance, but she wasn’t fast enough.
It yanked the lance from her hands, then closed its colossal jaws
around her torso, snapping her spine with a single bite.

The Runners took a step back, watching
the Dragon toss Nyssa’s lifeless body aside.

“
How do we kill it?” Daviel screamed, panicking.

“
Aim for the head and the heart.” Nasur replied. “Wait,
watch out! Fire!”

The Dragon’s head recoil
ed as it took a deep breath, then its mouth opened and
flames burst out from its throat. Targon saw Nasur pushing Runners
behind stones and boulders, leaving his back exposed to the
inferno. The flames quickly cloaked him. He fell, screaming, and
rolled across the floor. Thamet jumped to him, trying to put the
flames out with his cloak, but ended up getting caught by the
relentless gush of fire. When the Dragon’s mouth finally closed,
the two of them had been burned to a crisp.

Targon
choked a cry and wiped tears from his eyes. He forced himself up
again, ignoring the mind twisting pain in his leg, and limped
towards the Dragon’s tail. He jumped on the Dragon’s back, hoisting
himself on its triangular back plates.

The Dragon must have felt him, because
it began to squirm violently. Targon hugged the Jaggedback’s
jerking plates as if he was about to fall off a cliff.

“
Distract him!” He screamed. “Quick!”

His men were
still hiding behind cover, too afraid to come out.

“
Come on, you worms!”
Targon heard someone say. “Shoot it!”

It was
Serak. He was shoving the remaining Runners away from their hiding
places, spurring them forward.

As the new onslaught of lances and arrows
fell down on the Dragon, its back
became stable again and Targon dragged himself along its spine,
towards the beast’s neck. He heard Samir squealing as he was flung
into the air by the beast’s massive paw. Then, an arrow struck the
Dragon, right in front of Targon’s eyes, missing his head by an
inch.

Gods of the
surface!

He
pulled the arrow
out of his way and heaved himself up the Dragon’s neck; his leg
tormenting him with each push. This time, despite the attackers in
front of it, the Dragon didn’t ignore Targon. His head curved
sharply, trying to bite on the tiny man scaling its
body.

“
HEY! Hey ash breath. Yeah, you, you huge bat!” Serak was
screaming and waving his torch like a mad man, picking up rock and
bones to throw at the beast’s head. “Come on, you ugly
lizard.”

The display worked. Serak to
ok a step back as the Dragon roared and charged after
him.

“
I need a weapon.” Targon
screamed. “Throw me something.”

Serak couldn’t even hear him. He dived
and rolled to his left, barely escaping a jet of fire. Targon’s
hands were getting sweaty and he couldn’t feel his fingers anymore.
He would slip at any moment.

“
A blade!” He screamed.
“Something!”

He looked
below and saw Balcazar sliding beneath one of the gigantic fore
legs.

“
Here, Captain.” He said, hurling a dagger. “Strike between
his eyes.”

The weapon circled upwards and Targon caught it in
midair, leaving only one spare hand
to hold on to the Dragon. His fingers were slipping; his weight was
too much for his tired arm. The Dragon lunged to Serak once again,
its mouth open wide. Targon raised the dagger as high as he could,
clenching his teeth and screaming from the effort. His hand came
down at the same time as the Dragon dived for Serak, and the
Glowstone blade buried itself deep into the beast’s
skull.

The
Dragon’s head
jerked backward with an earsplitting scream, yanking Targon away.
The creature squirmed, its wings wavering aimlessly; another growl
echoed through the cave, fainter than the previous; its legs moved
uncertainly to the left, then back to the right; the monster’s
mouth got stuck in a silent roar – until its body collapsed onto
one side with a thump that shook the whole cave.